Chaucer- context and terms Flashcards
Medieval Attitudes to Sex
The medieval Church sought to regulate sexual conduct. It was believed that how you lived in this life, and this included your sexual conduct, made a significant impact on where you went in the next life. Sex belonged in marriage and its purpose was procreation. Sex purely for pleasure was not condoned by the Church.
Medieval Attitudes to Women
The society in which Chaucer lived in was a patriarchal one, dominated and ruled by men and as a consequence, medieval Attitudes and literature about women could be misogynist.
St Paul was one of Christ’s disciples and an early Christian leader. St Paul is know for his misogynist views towards women and believed women should be silent, submissive and should not be allowed to teach or have any authority over men.
Anti feminist Literature- Eustance Deschamps was one of Chaucer’s French contemporaries and was known for his Le Miroir de Mariage which details various ploys women use to deceive and torment their husbands. Chaucer draws parallels to Deschamps’ Le Miroir de Mariage in the first part of the Merchant’s Prologue and tale in some of his imagery and arguments.
Courtly love
The courtly love tradition (influenced by Petratch’s sonnets to the unattainable Laura) emphasises male suffering, males performing brave and heroic feats to prove their love and the female object of desire remaining aloof and unavailable.
Chaucer parodies this tradition through Damyan and May. The accounts of his suffering and exaggerated, and doesn’t have to perform any heroic feats and May quickly makes herself sexually available.
Therefore Chaucer uses elements of courtly love to reinforce the tale as a fabliaux. Damyan only writes letters to May but writing love letters wasn’t a big deal in the medieval period. The Merchant’s tale is a fabliaux that works under the guise of courtly love conventions.
Fabliau
A fabliaux is a comic, bawdy tale and the plot usually centres on an older husband married to a much younger wife, who is tricked into unwittingly contriving with a young intruder in their marriage to enable the young couple to commit adultery. In the world of fabliaux you are punished when you are stupid and step put of your allotted ‘place’ in society.
Usually about people in the lower classes, Chaucer chooses to centre his tale around a knight to make fun of people who are trying to live above their station.
Senex amans
Literally ‘ancient lover’. In fabliaux the senex amans is an old jealous man married to a young beautiful wife, often mocked because of his foolishness. His wife will turn out to be unfaithful to him and he will become a cuckold.
The Medieval Period
The Canterbury Tales would have originally been read aloud by Chaucer himself to an audience of educated courtiers. Books were expensive and difficult to reproduce (handwritten)
The ‘querelle des femmes’
There was a French woman called Christine de Pisan who was recorded to hold ‘pro-woman’ views in the 1300s. Chaucer was well- educated and extensively travelled and would be likely to be aware of her stance, as were his audience.
Such ideas led to a great deal of debate over the morality of women who were seen as inherently sinful (Adam and Eve story)
‘Gentilesse’
‘Gentilesse’ means having good breading
‘The Franklin’s Tale’
Scholars think might have been positioned after the Merchant’s Tale. This is a story in which true love prevails and in which men and women treat each other with courtesy, respect and ‘gentilesse’.
